Control, Attitudes de se and Immunity to Error Through Misidentification
Gaetano Fiorin, Denis Delfitto
Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia August 31, 2014 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.4453/rifp.2014.0015 via DOAJ
Summary
This article reviews and criticizes James Higginbotham's reflexive analysis of the silent subject in infinitival complements of verbs like 'remember' and 'imagine', which he argued is unambiguously de se and immune to error through misidentification. The authors extend their criticism to analyses based on acquaintance relations and centered possible worlds. Drawing on cognitive science, they propose an amendment to Higginbotham's account by linking the thematic role 'Experiencer' to a function mapping events into 'minimal selves', as defined by Shaun Gallagher.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The silent subject of infinitival complements of verbs like 'remember' and 'imagine' should be analyzed via the thematic role 'Experiencer' mapping events into minimal selves, rather than through reflexive or centered-worlds accounts. |
Abstract
In his work on attitudes de se, James Higginbotham has observed that the silent subject of the infinitival complements of verbs such as remember and imagine is (i) unambiguously de se and (ii) immune to error through misidentification relatively to the subject of the matrix clause. In this article, we review and criticize Higginbotham’s reflexive analysis of these infinitival complements. We also show that the type of criticism we raise against Higginbotham’s account applies likewise to analyses based on the use of acquaintance relations and centered possible worlds. Finally, following recent ideas in cognitive science, we propose an amendment to Higginbotham’s account based on the idea that the thematic-role “Experiencer” corresponds to a function mapping events into “minimal selves”, in the sense of Shaun Gallagher.